{"id":133,"date":"2021-06-12T20:53:55","date_gmt":"2021-06-12T20:53:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ksoakes.expressions.syr.edu\/wrt205summer2021\/?p=133"},"modified":"2021-06-12T20:53:55","modified_gmt":"2021-06-12T20:53:55","slug":"discussion-questions-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ksoakes.expressions.syr.edu\/wrt205summer2021\/2021\/06\/12\/discussion-questions-7\/","title":{"rendered":"Discussion Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Response to #1<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat is organizational culture and why should we care?\u201d by Michael Watkins provided many viewpoints on the topic but did not bring anything into sharp focus for me. After reading the various definitions, I began to wonder if organizational culture was actually just another \u201ctool\u201d created by management to be used to influence employee behavior, motivate them to work, and improve their performance. Perhaps all the talk about belonging and core values is really a form of manipulation? In other words, perhaps organizational culture is nothing more than an algorithm that creates greater profit. Companies are always upgrading their technology, maximizing the efficiency of their supply chains, trying new marketing strategies, etc, constantly looking for a competitive edge and higher profits. Is organizational culture just another one of those things that companies are working on and finetuning to maximize their profits at a particular point in time? I am interested in knowing if anyone has studied this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The statistics in \u201cWhy Diversity Matters\u201d by Vivian Hunt, Dennis Layton, and Sara Prince are widely referenced. On the surface, it all makes sense. A more diverse workforce will help your company understand the needs of more customers and see more opportunities in more markets. Therefore, you will make more profit. But I\u2019m wondering if there is another factor that could also be contributing to the financial results that is buried in the data. I say this because this statement from the article seems to work against the idea of diversity: \u201cWhile certain industries perform better on gender diversity and other industries on ethnic and racial diversity, no industry or company is in the top quartile on both dimensions.\u201d In other words, companies don\u2019t do as well if they have both gender and ethnic and racial diversity. I am curious to know more about this. Furthermore, the McKinsey study looked at the composition of top management and boards in 2014 and financial data for the years 2010 to 2013. This seems like a short time frame for the analysis. I am curious to know if diversity matters over the long term. Do companies with diversity from the start have a better chance of surviving and thriving over the long term? Does diversity make a difference all along the lifecycle of company?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Response to #2<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the article \u201cWhy Diversity Matters,\u201d the authors state that diversity \u201cleads to a virtuous cycle of increasing returns.\u201d This immediately makes me think of my experiences in my high school\u2019s vocal jazz ensemble. I was fortunate to go to a high school with a vocal music program that became a powerhouse because of the wide range of racial and ethnic diversity in our district. When I was in high school, I did not realize that so much of our success depended on our music director\u2019s talent for selecting just the right composition of performers. Every song had complex arrangements and harmonies requiring a range of male and female voices. We also needed vocalists who could scat, beatbox and do vocal percussion, carry a walking bassline, and perform songs from different genres ranging from chamber jazz to gospel to pop. Factoring into all of that was each individual singer\u2019s racial, ethnic, and cultural background that shaped our sound. Year after year, our jazz vocal groups would travel to competitions throughout California, and we would regularly win the top awards. We were often invited to perform at festivals like the Monterey Jazz Festival. We were named the best high school vocal jazz program in the nation by Downbeat<\/em> magazine. Now that I think back to our competitions against other schools, I can clearly see that our diversity was the element that made us better performers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Response to #1 \u201cWhat is organizational culture and why should we care?\u201d by Michael Watkins provided many viewpoints on the topic but did not bring anything into sharp focus for me. After reading the various definitions, I began to wonder if organizational culture was actually just another \u201ctool\u201d created by management to be used to … Continue reading “Discussion Questions”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":173,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[24,12,8],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ksoakes.expressions.syr.edu\/wrt205summer2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ksoakes.expressions.syr.edu\/wrt205summer2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ksoakes.expressions.syr.edu\/wrt205summer2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ksoakes.expressions.syr.edu\/wrt205summer2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/173"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ksoakes.expressions.syr.edu\/wrt205summer2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ksoakes.expressions.syr.edu\/wrt205summer2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134,"href":"https:\/\/ksoakes.expressions.syr.edu\/wrt205summer2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133\/revisions\/134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ksoakes.expressions.syr.edu\/wrt205summer2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ksoakes.expressions.syr.edu\/wrt205summer2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ksoakes.expressions.syr.edu\/wrt205summer2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}